Joe Hallett commentary: Ohio no longer knows how to get its way in D.C.

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Sunday January 12, 2014 5:06 AM

Feeling used and abused? You should be.

But then, we Ohioans are getting used to that. Every four years, the presidential candidates
swoop into our must-win state, kiss our babies, promise the moon and lead us to the altar, only to
jilt us after Election Day.

The latest example of Washington’s say-hello, say-goodbye attitude toward Ohio was the Federal
Aviation Administration’s decision to leave it off the list of six states to get test sites for the
nonmilitary development of drones. There was no state better suited than Ohio, particularly
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, where advanced drone research and development already
is occurring.

The budding commercial development of drones will mean billions of dollars and thousands of
jobs. With its unemployment rate on the rise and job-growth stagnant, Ohio needs such a shot in the
arm.

Instead, we got another kick in the butt, following the Obama administration’s decision two
years ago to bypass the national Air Force museum in Dayton,
the birthplace of aviation, as home for a retired space shuttle.

Southern Ohio still is waiting for President Barack Obama to deliver on his 2008 campaign
promise that Piketon “will play a central role in our nation’s domestic energy supply” as USEC
continues its interminable wait for federal loan guarantees to build the American Centrifuge
Plant.

“You would think that Ohio, on the merits and the basis of its clout in presidential elections,
would be in a position to get some contracts,” said Ohio State University political scientist Paul
Beck.

The blame extends beyond Obama and washes over Ohio’s congressional delegation and the
administration of GOP Gov. John Kasich.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, arguably the most powerful member of Congress, has
done Obama no favors and long has eschewed earmarks, making it easy for the administration to say
no to the drone project in his backyard. Two other members from that part of the state, Republican
Reps. Jim Jordan of Urbana and Steve Chabot of Cincinnati, have rendered themselves irrelevant as
nabobs of negativism who don’t play well with anybody outside of the tea party.

And even though Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, is a senior member of the House Armed Services
Committee, his sharp edges can be off-putting to others in positions to do him a favor.

Obama, meanwhile, thumbed his nose anew at Ohio’s senior senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, opting
to please two more powerful senators whose states were included as drone sites, Majority Leader
Harry Reid of Nevada and Chuck Schumer of New York.

Kasich also was criticized; some said his decision to close the state’s Washington office hurt
Ohio’s cause.

“I think it was a mistake,” said George V. Voinovich, former Ohio GOP governor and U.S. senator,
whose administration spent $430,000 in 1998 on a Washington office that he said paid big
dividends.

“You cannot rely on the delegation, because they’re all very, very busy with their own agendas,”
Voinovich said. “You’ve got to have somebody staying on top of these things all the time and
bringing it to the attention of our delegation and other members.”

Rob Nichols, Kasich’s spokesman, said there is no need for a D.C. office, because “the real
innovations and reforms are taking place at the state level,” adding that “the less the federal
government interferes with Ohio, the better off Ohioans will be.”

Not so long ago, Ohio had powerful dealmakers in Congress, such as Republican Reps. David Hobson
of Springfield and Ralph Regula of Navarre, who knew how to use the levers of power to benefit the
state.

Now Ohio is nothing more than a fling, a hot date during the presidential campaign and a lost
phone number when it’s over.